Teaching Math with the New Standards

The Common Core Standards are now supposed to be fully implemented in CA classrooms in both math and ELA. As a teacher, I have had to adapt and adjust my teaching to align to the new set of standards. From my experience and through conversations with colleagues I have realized it has been somewhat of a rocky transition. Any change often takes time, we have to relearn standards and adjust assignments and tasks to fit the mold of the new standards. However, what I find to be the biggest obstacle in adopting the new standards is the lack of preparation and teacher support. This article, "Math Teaching Often Doesn't Fit With New Standards", spoke about teachers’ willingness to teach the new standards and implement them in their classroom, however the teachers’ roles are limited. This article was written in 2012 and we are still struggling with the same problems. We have the same math curriculum that existed before the common core standards were introduced and, to be quite honest, I am not a fan of it. LAUSD uses the Envision math program and I find that it expects students to solve problems their way instead of leaving room for students to use their own methods and strategies. I also find that the scope and sequence of the program is illogical and developmentally inappropriate. For example, the kindergarten chapter on counting has one lesson where students learn to count from 20-30 and then the next lesson is 30-100. That is a huge margin to teach in only two lessons. Until the curriculum and professional developments are restructured to support effective teaching, this will continue to be an issue.